HBO Just Dropped Its Most Outrageous Episode Of The Year So Far - And It’s Not In The Last Of Us

HBO just released its most outrageous episode of 2025 so far with Nathan Fielder's The Rehearsal season 2, episode 3. HBO has already offered up some top-tier TV during the first four months of the year, including season 3 of The White Lotus, the addictive breakout medical drama The Pitt, and the fourth and final season of the celebrated comedy series The Righteous Gemstones. With The Rehearsal, which returns for its second season nearly three years after premiering in July 2022, the avant-garde comedian Nathan Fielder pulls off some of his most audacious feats yet on television.

Another highly anticipated season 2 on HBO, The Last of Us, is also currently releasing weekly episodes and is available to stream on Max. While The Last of Us and The Rehearsal are virtually opposite types of television – the former being a bleak and cinematic video game adaptation and the latter being a meta-comedy docuseries hybrid – both offer some of the best new TV of 2025 so far under the HBO/Max umbrella. The Last of Us season 2, episode 2, left many viewers stunned and even scarred, especially those who had never played the video game. However, The Rehearsal just pulled off something even more shocking.

The Rehearsal Season 2, Episode 3 Is Mind-Blowing & Must-Watch TV

Nathan Fielder Is One Of The Greatest Comedic Minds Working Today

Series creator Nathan Fielder is known for his deadpan delivery and elaborate prank-style humor that uniquely blends fiction with reality and takes things to extreme levels. His breakout series, Nathan For You, which ran for four seasons on Comedy Central, was just the beginning of his heady approach to TV comedy. In Nathan For You, Fielder plays an intentionally muted and socially awkward version of himself and integrates his seemingly genuine ambitions, mainly to improve people's businesses via inventive and often strange marketing tactics, with great comedic and cringe-inducing effect.

The Rehearsal takes Fielder's one-of-a-kind approach to new levels by recreating real-world settings in the confines of a film and television sound stage to allow people to practice or "rehearse" actual events. This tactic has been used both as a mode of preparation for future events, such as helping a woman anticipate motherhood in The Rehearsal season 1, as well as to recreate past events or occupy inaccessible spaces, such as the private pilot's quarters at various airport terminals. In The Rehearsal season 2, Fielder focuses on a series of actual airplane crashes and aims to improve communication between pilots and co-pilots to avoid future aviation catastrophes.

Nathan Fielder Creates TV Gold With Cloned Dogs, Evanescence, & Captain Sully

It's One Of The Most Jaw-Jopping & Laugh-Out-Loud Funny TV Episodes Of 2025

Nathan Fielder is a mastermind at taking seemingly unrelated, even random, things and people and drawing connections between them in ways that most people have likely never thought of. The Rehearsal season 2, episode 3, "Pilot's Code," is a perfect example of this, as Nathan cleverly theorizes a relationship between three (very real) cloned dogs, the rock band Evanescence, and Captain Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger, the American hero who famously landed a commercial flight in the Hudson River in January 2009. While all this sounds ridiculous on paper, which is part of the joke, Fielder proves he may have a point.

Without giving too much away in The Rehearsal season 2, episode 3, Nathan experiments with the classic "nature vs. nurture" debate regarding human and animal development. The episode begins with three cloned dogs, named after Greek gods and heroes, who lack some of the distinct personality traits of the original, now deceased, animal named Achilles. Nathan arranges for the three dogs to live separately with three actors and actresses playing their owners, who each reside in a recreation of the couple's first apartment. Nathan tests to see whether each cloned dog will be conditioned to behave like Achilles by recreating his home environment, and eventually, one cloned dog does so.

The Rehearsal Season 2 Is Currently More Entertaining Than TLOU Season 2

The Rehearsal Is Already One Of The Most Innovative Comedy Shows Ever Made

Based on the results of his cloned dog experiment, Nathan gets the idea that perhaps the ideal pilot, like Captain Sully, can be raised by recreating his actual upbringing. Nathan recreates scenes from Sully's memoir, Highest Duty: My Search for What Really Matters, and method-acts as Sully himself, from his origin as a non-speaking infant to his heroic life-saving efforts on US Airways Flight 1549. Nathan then hypothesizes that Sully could have been listening to one of his favorite songs, "Bring Me to Life" by Evanescence (which he notes in his book), before deciding to land the plane in the Hudson.

While comparing The Rehearsal to The Last of Us is a bit of an apples-and-oranges scenario, I'm convinced The Rehearsal is putting out a more compelling and innovative product than The Last of Us at this point in each of their respective second seasons. While The Last of Us season 1 began as must-see TV, it has arguably fallen off that elite pedestal, especially after the loss of one particularly major character. The Rehearsal, however, is pulling off things I have never seen on television before, apart from Fielder's previous works, and deserves all the attention and acclaim it receives.

HBO’s 2025 Releases Are Proving It's The Premier Home For TV Comedy

Hacks, The Righteous Gemstones & The White Lotus Were All Recently Released

HBO and Max have been off to a great start this year in original comedy series. Apart from The Rehearsal season 2, Hacks season 4 is proving to be its best season yet after the show won Best Comedy Series at last year's Emmy Awards, dethroning The Bear. HBO also just wrapped up Danny McBride's The Righteous Gemstones season 4, which featured a surprise guest appearance from 12-time Oscar nominee Bradley Cooper in its opening episode. Additionally, Mike White's dramedy series The White Lotus recently concluded its third season set in Thailand.

The Rehearsal season 2 could become a top contender for HBO at the 2025 Emmy Awards, especially considering that two of its recent hit series, Barry and Curb Your Enthusiasm, have come to an end. That said, Hacks is still the one to beat in the field, which will be a tough challenge for any series from any network. Fielder hasn't earned the awards-season recognition he arguably deserved for Nathan For You and The Rehearsal season 1, (Showtime's The Curse with Benny Safdie and Emma Stone was also an interesting but less effective entry), but his latest effort should change that.